PURELY COMMENTARY
An Admonition From Isaiah: Against Self-Betrayal
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
aralleling news reports and
editorial comments on the sad-
dened situation in Israel are
discussions and debates over the Jewish
reactions Diaspora-wide, especially in
the United States. Jews are under
challenge: do they have the courage to
criticize Israel? Meanwhile, there is an
emergence of peace-advocating
elements and they are more critical of
Israel than the Arabs themselves.
All of which is cause for concern. It
is puzzling that there should even be
the doubting over the right to criticize
and the accusing when there is dispute
over self-condemning. That's what Jews
have been doing all the time, and it was
tested as early as in the days of the Pro-
phet Isaiah. That was about 2,700 years
ago.
It is heartrending enough for
Israelis to be under constant attack
from rock-hurlers. The attacks on Israel
morality wise are appalling. The em-
phasis on cruelty practiced by the
p
Israeli soldiers add to the heartaches.
The medias' resort to the negatives for
Israel caused despair. Minister of
Defense Yitzhak Rabin's orders for
"beatings" did not gain him glory or
widespread approval. Beatings are not
Israel's weapons for self-defense and
when resorted to are treated with
regret.
Yet, many of the reporters of such
crimes and photographers of them are
Jews. Which adds to the sorrow. When
Israel's critics attempt to equate Israeli
self-protection methods with the bar-
barities of the Nazis, they horrify and
need refutation and a way of clarifying
and setting the accusers straight.
One of Jewry's most distinguished
academicians and authors, Prof. Sol
Liptzin, was confronted with a shock-
ingly anti-Jewish and anti-Israel at-
titude equating the Israelis with
Nazism. Prof. Liptzin, who now makes
his home in Jerusalem, held American
professorships in German and Hebrew.
He is the author of important historical
works on German Jewry and transla-
tions from the German and Yiddish. He
ISAIAH
I. THE vision of Isaiah the son of
Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem, in the days
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
z. Hear, 0 heavens, and give ear,
0 earth,
For the LORD hath spoken:
Children I have reared, and
brought up,
And they have rebelled against
Me.
3. The ox knoweth his owner,
And the ass his master's crib;
But Israel doth not know,
My people doth not consider.
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has a wide association with academi-
cians in this country and abroad. A
former associate in Germany wrote him
a shocking attack on Israelis. He liken-
ed the present regrettable situation to
Nazism, called Israelis Nazis and ex-
pressed a hatred that is undescribable.
Prof. Liptzin, whose authoritative
position also applies to Israel, was deep-
ly hurt by such an attack. His two
young grandsons are in the Israeli ar-
my, and it added to his deep chagrin. He
therefore wrote to the critic, opening up
to him his heart, mind and knowledge
and his long letter serves as an explana-
tion of Israel's attitude in the present
crisis.
The misunderstanding leading to
abuse resulted from a lack of knowledge
on the part of his one-time associate,
and it induced Dr. Liptzin to provide a
background of the events leading to the
realization of the Zionist ideal. He
reminded the attacker of the Holocaust
sufferings and the Jewish battle for
justice. Then he proceeded with this rep-
ly to the enmity that generated his
friend's equating Israel with Hitlerism:
If you and I are still Jewish,
it is because for all the genera-
tions since our exile from
Jerusalem, our ancestors retain-
ed the dream of our return to
our origins .. .
After World War I, our hopes
and longings were vindicated.
The nations of the world
recognized our right to a na-
tional homeland in mandated
Palestine on both sides of the
Jordan. This land was, however,
inhabited not only by Jews but
also by Arabs. The British Man-
datory Power believed it could
satisfy the aspirations of both
Jews and Arabs by partitioning
the country, opening the one-
third west of the Jordan to
Jewish settlements and bestow-
ing the two-thirds east of the
Jordan to the Arabs under the
Emir Abdulla whose grandson,
King Hussein, still rules it. We
accepted the partition as not un-
Sol Liptzin
fair but the Arabs did not. They
claimed and still claim all of
mandated Palestine as theirs.
They rioted in 1929. Among the
slain victims were five members
of my son-in-law's family who
had settled in Hebron a century
or two after their expulsion from
Spain in 1492.
The Arabs rioted again in
1936 when I first visited
Palestine and only in 1939 did
the violence abate. They were
not appeased in 1947 when the
UN voted to partition the one-
third of the mandate west of the
Jordan into a Jewish state and
an Arab state. We Jews accepted
the decision and on May 6, 1948
proclaimed our independence,
the Jewish State of Israel. The
Arabs rejected the separate
state assigned to them and con-
tinued to claim the entire land.
The Arab countries bordering
Palestine invaded the Jewish
State, certain that they could
crush the nascent Israel. Egypt
took over Gaza. Jordan took
Continued on Page 40
Professor Kellman Revives Interest In Ford For Senate
M
illions of words were written
about the Fords as historic
items about the famous fami-
ly at the time of the funeral of Henry
Ford II. Surprisingly, there has been lit-
tle mention in recent years about the
era when Henry Ford I was a candidate
for the United States Senate.
It was during the election of 1918.
Ford was the Democratic choice of Presi-
dent Woodrow Wilson, who was anxious
to gain control of the U.S. Senate. Presi-
dent Wilson needed a Democratic
Senate to avert the defeat he suffered
in his battle for U.S. support of the
League of Nations. Had Ford been
elected, the Senate would have had a 48
to 46 Democratic majority.
Michigan until that time was
almost always a Republican state. Ford
2
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1988
was defeated by Truman Newberry, and
the entire election resulted in
fraudulent testing, in court actions, in
a campaign conducted by Henry Ford I
with a vengeance, seeking to expose the
illegal methods that were resorted to by
Newberry's suporters.
The Ford candidacy, his defeat by
Newberry, the latter's trial and all the
attendant implications are described in
detail by Prof. Maurice Kellman of
Wayne State University College of Law,
in an historic essay in the Wayne Law
Review. The article is entitled "Cam-
paign on Trial: The Unnecessary
Ordeal of Truman Newberry."
The details of the trial, the pro-
cedure that led to a U.S. Supreme Court
appeal, the eventual Newberry resigna-
tion and the threats he confronted, are
related here. There was a Michigan law
at the time restricting campaign ex-
penses to $3,750. Newberry's reported
expenditure was $176,000. He was ac-
cused of spending a million or more.
Ford was unrelenting in his post-
campaign challenges and accusations.
He carried on his campaign of
vengeance. His defeat by Newberry em-
bittered him. By that time he already
carried grudges against Jews and link-
ed them with the Wall Street he hated.
Therefore he accused Jews and Wall
Street of beating him in the political
campaign. As Prof. Kellman describes
it in his essay:
"Ford . . . attributed his defeat to a
single cause — 'Wall Street' and 'an in-
fluential gang of Jews' working their
sinister magic for Newberry's benefit."
The Kellman essay is detailed and
is an exciting chapter of history.
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Vol. XCIII No. 3
March 18, 1988